1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a processing apparatus for recording information such as images and characters on a card or other recording medium. More particularly, this invention relates to a card processing apparatus having a technically ingenious arrangement of a plurality of processing means including a printer, thus to make the device compact and improve the efficiency of processing and attain a high degree of freedom of design.
2. Description of the Related Arts
There have been widely used various types of card printers for printing or recording information such as images and characters on a recording card base of plastic to produce a credit card, license card, IC card and so on.
Usually, the recording device of this kind is composed of a card supplying means including a card stacker for storing one or more blank cards, a recording means such as a thermal printer, and a card discharging means for sending out a finished card. Such processing means are generally arranged along one card transport path.
The recording part includes not only a printer, but also a magnetic encoder for magnetically recording information on the card and a coating means for coating a recording surface of the card with a protective film or a hologram film in order to protect the recording surface and to prevent falsification of the card. These components constituting the recording part are placed almost on the straight card transport path.
For example, Japanese patent Tokkai Hei 10-71648 teaches an apparatus for creating the ID card by printing to the card surface the owner""s photograph along with their name, the name of their company and the name of the section to which they belong using a thermal printer. This thermal printer apparatus further incorporates a coating apparatus to cover the card surface to prevent discoloration of the printed indicia after printing such data with a hologram film being either a transparent, protective coating film or having a specific pattern, to improve the durability of the card and to prevent falsification of the ID information and the owner""s photograph, the plurality of these processing units being established along substantially one card transport path.
Furthermore, the apparatus described includes a magnetic encoder for magnetically recording information to a magnetic layer established on the back surface of the card, located below the thermal transfer printer and in the apparatus is a separate transport path established substantially parallel to the transport established in the printer forming a transport path to transport the card through an inversion section that includes a card turning unit.
Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,522 discloses a printer apparatus comprising a transport path provided with a smart card encoder unit established obliquely below a print unit to a card transport path provided with a printer unit and a turning unit (called an index table) via the turning unit.
According to the apparatus as disclosed in Tokkai Hei 10-71648, because a plurality of processing units are established along a single card transport path that is substantially linear to transport the card targeted for processing, the entire apparatus is prevented from becoming compact and it requires at its minimum volume to be long in horizontal length.
Still further, while the overall length of the apparatus has been halved by separating the card transport path into two, namely the upper and the lower portions, it has been impossible to substantially reduce the volume of the apparatus. Efficiency in the processing of the cards, in other words, efficient card transport, was not possible because the card transport distance was lengthened. In other words, the transport path between the paired card inversion means made the distance longer from the card storage unit or the printer to the magnetic encoder.
Although the apparatuses of the past, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,522, do have the functions required by a card printer, it does not have the structure calling for a coating unit to provide an overcoat of protective film or holograms onto the recorded surface to protect the card""s recorded surface or to prevent falsification, which plays a very important role in providing added value to the creation of an ID card. Furthermore, because the obliquely arranged card transport path is arranged obliquely in the direction opposite to that of the card transport, this oblique transport path is built into a different casing that is separate from the casing that houses the printer and it was impossible to interlock these casings and to perform the added process to the card which is the recording medium.
Thus, in view of the situations described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a card processing apparatus that allows for a more compact apparatus that does not cause a reduction in card transporting and printing processing capacity, but improves the freedom of design as an apparatus by establishing a plurality of processing units such as a printer and coating unit in a rational manner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a highly useful card processing apparatus that establishes the card supply unit to store a plurality of recording media and a printer unit to print to the recording media in one casing and that enables the rational incorporation of other processing means such as a card discharge unit and a magnetic encoder into the necessary area occupied by the card supply unit and printer unit, and that further enables the incorporation of a coating unit to overcoat the recording media with protective film or hologram coating into another casing that can be linked to the casing into which the printer unit is built.
To attain the objects described above according to the card processing apparatus of the present invention, there are provided a first transport path from the card supply unit, a turning unit established along said first transport path and a first processing unit to perform the determined process on a card established in said first transport path, a second transport path established based on a point in said turning unit obliquely to the direction of card transport over said first transport path and a second processing unit to perform the determined process on a card in said second transport path, the end of either said first or said second transport paths established with a card discharge unit.
For purposes of simplicity of explanation, said second transport path is established obliquely having an angle of 90xc2x0 or more and less than 180xc2x0 with regard to the transport path leading from said first processing unit in said first transport path to said turning unit.
Also, said first processing unit and said second processing unit are built into one casing, or said first processing unit and said second processing unit can be built into independent casings that can be interlocked to each other.
In the explanation here, said card discharge unit is established at the end of said first transport path. As said turning unit faces said second processing unit to send a card, a card processed at said second processing unit is received and then faces said card discharge unit to send the card out. Said card discharge unit can also be arranged at the end of the second transport path so cards processed at said second processing unit can be discharged to said discharge unit in the same direction as the card transport direction facing the second processing unit from said turning unit.
One of either said first processing unit and said second processing unit is a thermal transfer printer and the other is a coating unit for applying a laminate film.
The card processing apparatus of the present invention has a first transport path from the card supply unit, a turning unit established along said first transport path, a second transport path and a third transport path, the end of at least one of said first, said second and said third transport paths is provided with a card discharge unit and first, second and third processing units each established in said first, said second and said third transport paths perform the determined processes on a card.
Here, said second transport path and said third transport path are established obliquely in directions going away from the turning unit which is the base point of reference.
It is possible also for said first processing unit, said second processing unit and said third processing unit to be comprised in one casing or for at least one of said first processing unit, said second processing unit and said third processing unit to be comprised in a separate and independent casing that can be linked to the casing in which the other of said processing units are housed.
For the explanation of the preferred embodiment, at least one of said first processing unit, said second processing unit and said third processing unit is a thermal transfer printer and that each of the said first processing unit, said second processing unit and said third processing unit is a thermal transfer printer, a laminating film coating unit and a magnetic encoder.